Books Reveal Compelling Portrait of Young Girls & Women with Disabiities
Reviewed by Laura Hershey (laurahershey@cripcommentary.com)
Strong Proud Sisters: Girls and Young Women with Disabilities, by Harilyn
Rousso. Washington, DC: Center for Women Policy Studies, 2001.
Double Jeopardy: Addressing Gender Equity in Special Education, Edited by
Harilyn Rousso and Michael L. Wehmeyer. Albany: State University of New York
Press, 2001.
"The disabled" (or, alternatively, "people with disabilities") and "disability
rights" are phrases used frequently -- as if disability is a singular category
of monolithic experience. Within that broad category, however, exists a vast
range of identity and interests. People's lives are shaped not only by physical
or mental disabilities, but also by factors such as class, race, sexual
orientation, geography, culture and, as two recent publications make clear,
gender and age.
Writer, editor and educator Harilyn Rousso has played a pivotal role in shining
light on the complex experiences and needs of disabled women, especially of
young women and girls with disabilities. While other researchers and advocates
too often ignore gender differences, or minimize their importance, Rousso probes
the details of disabled women's social, economic, educational and health
challenges.
By one estimate, Russo says, there are "some 3.3 million girls and young women
with disabilities, about 8 percent of all girls." (Survey of Income and Program
Participation 1994-95, cited in Strong Proud Sisters, p.4) Another survey finds
that the children under age 18, "5 percent of all girls and 7.1 percent of all
boys have school, play or other major activity limitations." (National Health
Interview Survey 1992, cited in Strong Proud Sisters, p.5)
In Strong Proud Sisters: Girls and Young Women with Disabilities, author Rousso
offers a mosaic of information comprised of statistics, previous studies, her
own research, and numerous still-unanswered questions. Taken together, these
facts and gaps begin to paint a sketchy but compelling portrait of the lives of
disabled girls, an important overview which should be read by everyone involved
in disability-rights advocacy, the women's movement, education, health care, and
public policy.
Wide range of issues covered
Strong Proud Sisters offers a portrait of young disabled women's lives that is
impressive for its breadth, its depth, and its complexity. Rousso covers a wide
range of issues facing these young women, including educational opportunities,
health care, self-esteem, body image and identity, sexuality and parenting,
violence, and employment.
Within each of these categories, Rousso examines a range of interrelated
problems. For example, the discussion of health care introduces issues involving
access to health care, patterns of health care usage, participation in exercise
and sports, lifestyle issues such as drug abuse, and relationships with health
care providers and parents. On this last topic Rousso writes, "For adolescents
with disabilities in particular, the very fact that parents are extensively
involved in their health care may undermine their strivings toward independence.
Whether to take needed medications or to cooperate in therapy sessions may
become battlegrounds for self-assertion. The situation is compounded when
parents assume an overprotective stance, underestimating a child's capacity to
control her own care. Parents of disabled adolescent girls may be doubly
overprotective, assuming that their daughters, by virtue of being both female
and disabled, are doubly vulnerable and cannot take charge." (Strong Proud
Sisters, p.14)
Coherent assessment of complex needs and experiences
Although she is covering a broad range of issues, identities and disabling
conditions, Rousso manages to put forth a coherent assessment of young disabled
women's needs and experiences. Yet she never oversimplifies. Clearly these
issues are complex, and Rousso reveals the many layers of risk, challenge and
opportunity. She considers different factors which cause and/or exacerbate
various problems. Causes and effects, it turns out, are rarely a one-way street;
more often, they mutually reinforce each other. For example:
"There is a strong circular link between poverty and disability. Without
adequate community supports and programs, families with disabled members of any
age often face considerable financial burdens. And poverty puts children and
adults at risk for disability -- for such basic reasons as lack of adequate
food, clothing, shelter, health care and workplace safety. While research in the
United States appears to be limited, studies from other countries suggest that
in the face of scarce resources, girls may be at particular risk for
disability." (Strong Proud Sisters, p.6)
"Limited postsecondary education options and opportunities available to girls
with disabilities likely are both a cause and an effect of teen pregnancy.
Limited social skills and an overprotective lifestyle that emphasizes
overcompliance, lack of assertiveness and indiscriminant trust may be risk
factors as well." (Strong Proud Sisters, p.41)
Anthology stresses solutions & strategies
For readers with a deeper interest or involvement in education, an even more
informative publication is Double Jeopardy: Addressing Gender Equity in Special
Education. This anthology brings together essays which discuss problems,
solutions and strategies related to educating girls, especially girls with
disabilities. The experts in this volume cover a range of important educational
issues affecting female students including those with disabilities, both in the
classroom and beyond. For example, Rousso argues convincingly for the need to
increase mentorship opportunities for disabled girls and women. "Few mentoring
programs have made an active attempt to include disabled young people," she
says. "Until recently, their need for role models, particularly among girls with
disabilities, has been as invisible as successful disabled women themselves."
(Double Jeopardy, p.341)
"Big picture" on influence of gender
The first section of Double Jeopardy deals with the "big picture" -- the many
ways in which gender issues affect the lives of women with disabilities. The
next section provides a fairly comprehensive overview of gender issues in the
U.S. educational system, with three chapters written by experts in Title IX
implementation. These chapters cover such crucial concerns as teachers'
differential attention to girls and boys; stereotyped textbook images of male
and female roles; biased classroom interactions; the erosion of girls'
self-esteem; the high dropout rate especially among girls of color; sexual
harassment, date rape, and other forms of gendered violence; and disparities in
educational achievement in math, science, engineering and technology.
The heart of "double jeopardy"
Section Three is the heart of Double Jeopardy, and also the one posing the most
questions. This section tackles issues such as barriers to disabled girls'
participation in afterschool programs; questions of gender equity in
transitional services and vocational services; and more.
It is worth mentioning that in Double Jeopardy, "gender" does not just mean
female. Several of the essays deal directly with the impact of gender bias on
boys, especially those with disabilities. In his essay "Schools Fail Boys Too:
Exposing the Con of Traditional Masculinity," Craig Flood considers the impact
of patriarchal values on growing boys. Unfortunately his comments about disabled
boys are brief and speculative, suggesting a need for more work in this area. He
discusses the "double jeopardy men with disabilities may face in trying to
achieve a 'myth of masculinity' that places so much emphasis on physical
ability, independence, and invulnerability." (p.213)
Dearth of scholarship: insistence on more research
In both books, Rousso insists on the need for more research into specific
problems of questions facing disabled women and girls, and argues that this
increase in research will require "that we acknowledge and dismantle [the]
resistance to disability" resulting from "the same type of stereotypical
thinking that has kept women and girls with disabilities isolated and contained
for centuries." (Strong Proud Sisters, p.69) Overall there is a dearth of
scholarship concerning disabled women's lives; their issues are doubly
overlooked. "When disability research and policy have attended to gender, they
have usually focused on the concerns of males," Rousso points out. She adds,
"Most nondisabled women scholars have joined men in relegating disabled women to
a realm beneath their intellectual and political ken." (Double Jeopardy,
p.16-17) And when researchers do include disabled girls and women, Rousso adds,
"disability status is seen as such a significant explanatory factor that other
significant characteristics -- such as gender, race, ethnicity, and class, for
example -- are often overlooked. Yet research on disabled women and girls
demonstrates that this is a misguided notion. For youth with disabilities,
gender does matter." (Strong Proud Sisters, p.2)
The trap of categorization as 'other'
The category of "disabled girls and women" is itself a social construct, Rousso
and the other authors acknowledge. The vast range of disabling conditions,
combined with the many other elements comprising any particular person's
identity, make for an extraordinarily diverse population. "It is their
categorization as 'other' and the resulting invidious treatment they receive that
makes it likely that any or all will be thrown together in school, in the
unemployment line, in segregated recreation programs, and in legislation."
(Double Jeopardy, p.19-20)
Valuing perspectives of young women
Rousso goes against the grain, not only in focusing attention on disabled
women's issues, but also in the way that she values and validates young disabled
women's perspectives and experiences. Furthermore, Rousso demonstrates great
respect for her research subjects. In talking with teenage girls with physical
and/or mental disabilities, Rousso finds them to be resilient, creative,
adaptable, sometimes timid and sometimes defiant. These adolescents obviously
have tremendous potential to grow up to be disabled women who are, indeed,
strong proud sisters.
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